Life at Leopard's Den
by nikki-of-stormhold
Summary: An account of general goings on in every day life at Leopard's Den, with romance, drama, comedy and fun....
1. The Swimming Pool

**Life at Leopard's Den**

**Hello peoples, I am so pleased that there is now a Wild at Heart category on here! Its really made my week! This will be a series of scenes and little stories from Leopard's Den, including all the characters and many aspects of their lives. I appreciate any contact from fellow fans- any at all!**

**The swimming pool**

Danny Trevanion stood back and folded his arms, grinning absent mindedly.

"What are you looking so pleased about?" Alice asked as she hovered on the step beside him. She followed his gaze to the newest addition to the game reserve that was their home- the brand new swimming pool. It had been completed yesterday, and today was the first day that anyone would actually be using it. There were only two lots of guests at Leopard's Den this week, and they were out on a day trip to Johannesburg. That left the entirety of the staff to enjoy themselves and relax, and to test the pool. It was a hot day- they mostly were, but today the sun seemed particularly vicious. The water in the pool sparkled bright blue, the shiny new tiles reflecting the sunshine. Around the edge of the pool there were sun loungers and tables, and various umbrellas for protection from the sun. It was a few minutes before Danny realized that Alice didn't have many clothes on- she was wearing a bikini and carrying a bright orange towel. Danny's mouth opened and closed and he said something incomprehensible. She laughed and strolled over to the nearest sun lounger, dropping her towel onto it. She stood up straight and scooped her hair into a ponytail, smiling at Danny's awkward expression.

"Danny, its called a bikini."

"Yes… I know. Its….a very nice… bikini."

"Well, I'm glad you like it." She giggled again, and before he knew what had hit him Danny was bobbing in the water of his new swimming pool. Once he had worked out how to breathe again, he shook his hair out of his eyes and looked for Alice. She stood at the edge of the pool laughing hard.

"Look, you!" he yelled.

"Just because you saw fit to distract me with your new bikini, doesn't mean you can go around pushing fully clothed people into swimming pools!"

"Sorry, it was just so tempting." She stopped laughing, amused at the state she had managed to put Danny in in such a short amount of time.

"I was….." Alice did not get to finish her sentence, as she too was knocked into the pool. She came up next to Danny, who looked mildly satisfied.

"Serves you right." He shrugged.

"Who…."

The culprit then proceeded to throw himself into the pool, splashing Alice and Danny and causing water to flow over the sides.

"Evan."

"Sorry, couldn't resist." The three of them bobbed up and down in the water, glad that the pool had finally been finished.

**I hope to get the next one up soon. Reviews very welcome!**


	2. The cake

**The Cake**

**Evan and Danny attempt to make Alice a cake for her birthday.**

Danny walked slowly around the kitchen table, concentrating on a piece of crumpled paper that he held in front of him. He and Evan had just returned from the nearby market with ingredients, and Nomsa had left them some instructions. It was Alice's birthday- she had gone to the nearest town with Georgina to buy a dress for her party, due to take place that evening at Mara, the game reserve next door. Danny meanwhile, had decided that he wanted to do something sweet and personal for Alice, and had settled upon the idea of baking her own special cake for her. Having stumbled across a very bored Evan, he had enlisted him to help and the two of them now stood cluelessly in the kitchen at Leopard's Den.

"So have you ever actually done this before Danny?" Evan asked, rattling around in the cupboard for various bowls and spoons.

"I've never needed to. Nomsa is a cracking cook."

"Well yeah, but have you seriously never in your life baked a cake?"

"Er, no Evan, I don't think so. But you have surely, in home ec at school in the UK?"

Evan looked up guiltily.

"Er, actually I hold the record for the only student at my school to have been sent out of every cooking lesson I started."

There was a short silence.

"Oh well, we have instructions and our own, male intuition. How hard can it be?" Danny set the paper down next to some old fashioned looking weighing scales and sighed. Evan grinned and patted him on the back.

"You know Danny, most blokes go for roses, or chocolates or jewelry. Why did you think cake?"

"Well…. Because it shows I have actually…. You know, er… thought about it. Put the effort in."

"Danny?"

"Yes Evan?"

"You have gone very red."

A short while later, Nomsa decided that she had better check on the situation in the kitchen. She approached the closed door cautiously, and listened. There were busy sorts of sounds coming from inside. Was that good, or bad? She decided to find out just in case. Opening the door, she could not believe her eyes.

Danny stood at the sink, holding Evan's head under a tap which was turned on to full. Water splashed everywhere, and Evan was making some kind of strange gulping noise. Danny had a scouring pad type sponge in one hand and with the other he held Evan's head in the washing up bowl. There was flour all over the table, an empty sack lying discarded on the floor. A mixing bowl full of an unidentified mushy mixture was leaking its contents onto Du Plessis, who was desperately trying to scrub melted plastic off of one of the hob rings, which was still turned on and caused quite a bit of smoke. Silence ensued as she entered the kitchen and the door swung shut.

"Er….Nomsa."

"I do not believe it. A highly qualified vet, a clever young man and a mad old Africana…. Can cause all of this?"

"Hey, who are you calling mad and old, woman?" Du Plessis half yelled from his scrubbing position, promptly burning himself on the hob. Nomsa strode over and turned the hob off, grabbing the mixing bowl before it could do any more damage.

"Danny, what on earth are you doing to Evan?" she looked shocked as Evan stood up straight, dripping and dazed.

"I got pepper in my eyes. He was just washing it out for me."

"Pepper? Why were you using pepper in a cake?"

"I wasn't, I thought it was….. something else."

Danny stood sheepishly, a sponge dripping onto the floor in his hand, and his shirt covered in water and grimy flour.

"Nomsa, the instructions, they got…. Destroyed."

"They're not the only thing in this kitchen to have been destroyed. Out, all of you!" she bustled them all to the door.

"But Alice's cake!" Danny looked upset.

"I will deal with Alice's cake. Out now! Before any damage is done that I can't reverse."

Having no choice but to obey, the three of them left the kitchen, leaving the fate of Alice's cake in Nomsa's very capable hands.

"Happy birthday dear Alice….. happy birthday to you." The song finished and everyone clapped. Rowan hugged his sister and stepped back so that Grace and Vanessa could do the same, and the crowd parted to let Nomsa bring her cake through. Danny and Evan looked at each other helplessly.

"Wow! Thanks Nomsa!" Alice looked really happy, and blew out all the candle on the immaculate and delicious looking cake.

"Don't look at me. Danny and Evan made it for you while you were gone." Nomsa winked at the two failed chefs behind Alice's back, and laid the cake down on the table. Alice looked unbelievably touched, and smiled at Danny, who was speechless.

"You two made that for me?"

Evan nodded quickly.

"It was Danny's idea. I just…. Helped to wash up. And stuff."

Alice put a hand to her throat and looked at her cake.

"Danny…. Thank you. No-one ever made me a cake before." She looked like she might cry.

"Its.. its ok," Danny said quietly, hoping that Nomsa would feel the gratitude he was emitting. He hugged Alice awkwardly, Evan joining them. After a few seconds they all stepped back, and Georgina cut the cake ready to share out. Alice studied Evan's face.

"Evan, why are your eyes red? Are you alright?"

"Er, yeah I'm fine. Dup threw sand in them this morning."

Alice looked confusedly at Du Plessis, who thankfully caught on quite quickly.

"I was drunk," he shrugged. "It was an accident, boy."

Alice left it there and took a slice of cake. Rowan handed a slice each to Danny and Evan, who looked at each other with relief. Would she realize?

"Danny," Alice said when they had a quiet minute.

"Thanks for my cake. It's the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me."

"Its ok Alice, really. Have you really never had a birthday cake?"

"Well, Rowan tried to make me one when we were kids, but it tasted nasty."

"I heard that," Rowan said, walking past them with an amused smile.

"Seriously Danny, I'm really touched."

"Well, you have become… a very important person here, to all of us. And... to me."

She smiled and linked her arm through his.

"I wouldn't be anywhere else in the world."

In that instant, the disaster, the flour nor the cake did not matter. It was just the two of them, together, under the African sun with their family and friends around them. And there really was nowhere else that they would rather be.

**Reviews welcomed! Man I love this show.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with Wild at Heart, nor do I profess to in any way.**


	3. Fancy Dress

**Chapter Three- fancy dress party**

**(By the way, I have kept everything friendly as I feel that friendliness is the way to smiliness)**

**Disclaimer- I don't own Wild at Heart or anything connected with it, and I don't own any of the other stuff included in this chapter.)**

Evan and Grace looked at each other apprehensively as they stood outside the bar at Mara. It was Grace's birthday and Fatani had suggested a party at Mara to celebrate. Grace had decided that if she was going to be forced to endure a party in the African bush then she would do it her way, and have compulsory fancy dress. The others had not all been happy but had agreed, and after two weeks of planning, the evening had finally come.

"I swear my mum is going to embarrass me," Grace sighed as she and Evan mentally prepared themselves for their entrance.

"You think there's any way we can get in there un-noticed?"

Evan shook his head with a laugh.

"I doubt it. The amount of planning that's gone into this party, I think they'll want speeches and everything."

Grace grimaced and scowled at Evan, stepping ahead of him to enter the bar.

"Well, here goes."

Evan had been correct. As soon as they entered a chorus of "happy birthdays" began, and people crowded around Grace. After the initial hustle and bustle, everyone began to mingle again. There were guests, from Mara and from Leopard's Den, plus staff and friends from both. The bar had been beautifully decorated by Georgina and Caroline, and the catering staff had done a fantastic job with the food and a very pink colored punch in champagne glasses, lined up all along one side of the bar. Grace was about to speak to Evan when a large object bumped into her, knocking her onto Evan. The two of them blushed and righted themselves, turning to see what the obstacle had been.

"Fatani?" Grace raised her eyebrows.

"What….. your costume…." Evan looked confused.

"I'm a box." He looked very pleased with himself, as he flapped his arms against the huge cardboard box he wore over his suit.

"You came to my party dressed as a box."

He nodded and grabbed some punch from a passing waiter, then shuffled off, bumping into people evry which way.

"Well… that was imaginative." Grace had gone for a simple yet flattering outfit and dressed as a cheerleader. Evan had gone for Indiana Jones, and both considered Fatani's "box" outfit to be a little odd.

"Grace, Evan! Have you tried this punch? Its wonderful!" Georgina passed them a glass each and swayed a little. Caroline propped her up and giggled.

"The punch has a little bit of a kick to it, and Du Plessis has been feeding her glasses of it all afternoon."

Georgina was wearing a slightly skew whiff Kimono and had her hair in what had been a bun, but Du Plessis had done a good job in getting her inebriated. Caroline, a rather impressive Maid Marian, was trying to persuade her sister to sit down and drink some water as she was apparently, unaccustomed to drinking so much. Grace and Evan laughed; taking some inconspicuous photos when no-one was looking. A DJ started some very loud music, enticing everyone onto the dance floor. It wasn't long before someone grabbed Grace and spun her around, leaving Evan to 'learn how to dance properly' with an unlikely teacher.

"So how's the birthday girl then?" Max and Rosie danced alongside Grace- or tried to in Max's case, almost unrecognizable due to their excellent disguises, Anthony and Cleopatra.

"Where on earth did you guys get such awesome costumes in the bush?" Grace shouted over the music and the noise.

Rosie laughed.

"Max's inspiring business ingenuity," she yelled back.

"Ebay," Max corrected.

Meanwhile, Evan tried very hard not to laugh as Sherlock Holmes (or Danny) and Du Plessis attempted to 'bop' to the music, failing miserably and losing their dignity in the process. Du Plessis had obviously not tried very hard with his costume, and didn't seem to mind in the slightest that wearing his underwear over his clothes was attracting a lot of laughing and mocking.

Rowan was having difficulties waltzing with his niece, who was half his own height and didn't seem to accept the fact that it caused problems with leading etc. A cowboy dancing with a fairy looked odd anyway even without the height difference. Alice was busy snapping photos of everyone, her Robin Hood outfit carefully placed behind the camera rather than in front of it. Everyone was having a seemingly great time, as the borders of dignity and self value had well and truly been shattered early on in the evening.

The music faded suddenly and someone grabbed a microphone, calling for silence. Closer inspection revealed that it was Vanessa, who had donned a snowman outfit. Grace decided- publicly- that it was suitably embarrassing and had shunned her mother for most of the evening.

"I'd just like to thank everyone for coming to my wonderful daughter's birthday party, I think you'll all agree that it has been an unlikely success, with some very…..imaginative costumes."

Fatani looked innocent as many eyes fell upon him and his box.

"And now, without further ado, I give up the microphone to anyone who considers themselves brave enough to try… karaoke!"

Grace groaned and hid, whilst the most unlikely candidate was pushed forwards to the microphone. Drunk as drunk could be, Du Plessis took the microphone and grinned.

"I'd like to siinng….." he slurred and was cheered mightily from the ground.

"A…. song."

Georgina stood up and promptly fell over again, shouting that no-one should listen to him on account that he was a drunk and a bad man. No-one really heard, as he had already begun a rendition of _Yellow submarine. _Grace decided there and then that this was probably the best, if not the most memorable birthday party she had ever had.

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